Short version: On June 22, 2013 I ran the 23rd Annual Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon in Duluth, MN, a port city on Lake Superior. This is the HM counterpart to the Grandma's Marathon, which runs an hour later and starts 13.1 miles up the lake then follows the HM course. Conditions were excellent, the course was great, and I PRed with a time of 1:49:05.

Longer version: I wanted this to be a destination race but it wasn't in the cards. Hotel rooms for this were quite expensive so I ended up going by myself and sleeping in my car. I woke up at 4 AM after 3 hours of sleep to catch a bus to the start line. I got to watch the USATF HM Championships start for both males and females since they were using the same course that I would run.

I lined up with the 1:50 pacer, since it was my "A" goal. The rain had stopped and it was 50 with heavy fog at the start, with a tailwind. We started at 6:45 and I stuck with the pacer for almost the entire race. The course is mostly flat, at least for the first 9 miles. For the first 5 it's Lake Superior on your left and trees on your right. I saw dudes bypass the porta potties and pee in the woods, probably to the delight of the women who needed to use the can.

I took water when thirsty and after my gels at miles 5 and 8. I used a sponge at mile 7 and it was fantastic. A couple strawberries around mile 10 rounded out my calorie intake for the HM. I had previously had an issue with fading around mile 11, but I believe the added calories plus my 63 miles during All-Star week aided in me finishing strong. The pacer hit his splits almost perfectly. We had 30 seconds in the bank with a mile to go. When I got in to the straight away at the end and heard all of the people cheering it was just fantastic. I gave it everything that I had left and finished with a new PR of 1:49:05. Here are my splits.

Honestly it's the best race I've ran to date. I ran the whole thing strong from start to finish with really no slowing. It felt really good hitting my "A" goal that I have been chasing all year (2 previous halves were 1:53 and 1:54 respectively). Now I'm going to use the next couple of weeks to recover and then start my marathon training. My goal is a 4:00 on October 12th.

*edit* I found a decent pic of me on Marathonfoto so I shamelessly stole it:

Nice PR! Especially after three hours sleep in a car. Good luck on your marathon training.

I ran this one as well and just got back home. It was nice weather for a race but the fog all weekend was crazy.

Great job! Nice consistent pacing. Especially impressive after (barely) sleeping in your car!

Waittaminnit  - Are you trying to tell us somebody in Minnesota has a name like Björklund ? I call shenannigans!

Kidding aside, congrats on running a good race and hitting your A goal.  Especially after sleeping in your car!  I like to camp out to save a buck or two, but haven't slept in a car for a quarter century or so.  (Although I did sleep in a Ryder in Winona. Hope that isn't too dated and/or creepy....)

"Yeah, I'm driving up to Duluth and then sleeping in my car to do a HM the next morning".

Hardcore!

Great job smashing that "A" goal, and good luck with your sub-4 marathon training.

Congratulations on beating your A goal by almost a minute!  Sounds like you were really well prepared for the race!

Wow, car sleep the night before a race sounds like a rough way to go.  I totally get where you're coming from though.  They always say that it's the night before the night before that really makes the most impact as far as sleep goes.  This would have been a cool race to watch and participate in given its status with USATF.  Congratulations on hitting your A goal and running such a strong race.  Bumping that weekly mileage up really pays huge dividends.

Good job man